Ideas for keeping a P3 cool during hot days?

This saturday for the 4th of July my friends and I will be heading to Grand Haven Beach which is about an hour drive from my house, arriving at around 10am and staying all day until fireworks at midnight.

It's supposed to be 78 degrees outside on Saturday, and probably a lot warmer inside the completely black suburban I will be driving.

I really don't want to keep the P3 on the beach with us as we sometimes like to go for walks or swim and it would be easy for someone to steal $2500 worth of stuff. However, I also don't think leaving all my equipment in a hot car for 10 hours is a good idea either.

My thoughts were that I could maybe put the backpack in a cooler and then layer a thick insulated blanket on top with ice to keep it cool, or I could bring a 12V battery and wire it to a few fans to keep on in the car.

The cooler idea is fine but I wouldn't put bare ice in. Freeze a few jugs of water and place in cooler. As they melt, they won't get anything wet. Fans in a closed car won't help a thing. If anything, they are adding to the heat. Fans don't cool the air...they just move it.

Staff Member

Your over thinking it. Wrap the case in one or more thick blankets while sitting int the truck, then just take it out before you plan to use it and let it acclimate to the outside temperature prior to flying.

Fretting about heat stroked drone, and stressing out over a possible Phantom theft. Man, I would leave the Quad copter behind, and worry not. Why take away from the trip, by bringing it with you? Leave it home. You won't miss flying for one day. Besides, who could ENJOY looking at bikini clad ladies, while worrying about an RC model.
Get your priorities in order...

Fretting about heat stroked drone, and stressing out over a possible Phantom theft. Man, I would leave the Quad copter behind, and worry not. Why take away from the trip, by bringing it with you? Leave it home. You won't miss flying for one day. Besides, who could ENJOY looking at bikini clad ladies, while worrying about an RC model.
Get your priorities in order...

RedHotPoker

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Ummm he's going to San Francisco? .
Joking aside...it goes like this, my coldest winter was the summer spent in San Francisco...

If you change your post once more, we will both be confused.
Ok, is he going to, or coming from San-fran?
Let me see, yeah, That will be one Heck of a fast one hour drive from Michigan to California!? Uh

And I know what you are inferring, and that's not a nice way to poke fun at a fellow forum member. There is nothing in his post that says he is or isn't hetero, so what's the big deal. And even if he does live a different life style than we do, it's no biggy to me.

Fretting about heat stroked drone, and stressing out over a possible Phantom theft. Man, I would leave the Quad copter behind, and worry not. Why take away from the trip, by bringing it with you? Leave it home. You won't miss flying for one day. Besides, who could ENJOY looking at bikini clad ladies, while worrying about an RC model.
Get your priorities in order...

RedHotPoker

Click to expand...

4th of July fireworks come only once a year, while I go to the beach about 3-4x a week. Leaving it at home would be a last resort option

Your over thinking it. Wrap the case in one or more thick blankets while sitting int the truck, then just take it out before you plan to use it and let it acclimate to the outside temperature prior to flying.

4th of July fireworks come only once a year, while I go to the beach about 3-4x a week. Leaving it at home would be a last resort option.

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I see, well, you have some great advice as to keeping the gear cool. If you need to take it, do. I hope that when you take her up, that you can stay back from other revelers and fly safe. I wouldn't want to read about a mishap, or see it on the 6:00 pm news.
Have fun, and what ever you do, post up the video. Thanks.

I was able to leave my Phantom at home for the fireworks shower here last night. I don't feel confident flying at night for one thing, and definitely don't want to detract from others enjoying the Canada Day festivities. It was a lot of fun, and worry free.

I'm thinking that 78 might actually not be that bad as I've seen people flying in 110+, so I think the car will be fine if I just wrap it in blankets and put it in the shade.

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Well remember that cars are different to being outside as they are a semi-closed system...I.E., energy is continually pumped in from the sun, and doesn't escape very quickly. That's why cars heat up so quickly when you turn off the ignition and fans and just sit there. So even if it is 78 outside, it might reach a lot higher inside the car!

The LiPos don't like heat. Not sure why, batteries are a bit of a mystery to me. But, a wizard somewhere who created LiPos said not to expose them to high temperatures so let's not test it out!

The rest of the aircraft electronics should be fine. What are you worried about overheating? Remember that when these things are constructed, all the components are exposed to far, far greater temperatures when they are soldered to the PCBs. I'd be more worried about the plastic warping than anything else.

I haven't personally left my Phantom in my car in such heat, so I can't say any of this for sure. But, if you insulate it, you can minimize the risk. Would I personally leave it in a hot car? Probably yes, but I'd take the batteries out for sure, and keep them alongside my phone if I went swimming etc.

I wasn't really sure what I was afraid of overheating, I just knew heat was supposed to be the enemy.

Now I'm kind of leaning towards leaving the P3 at home and just bringing my DSLR and a tripod. My friends plan to watch the fireworks at one location and I would have to be on the opposite side of the river in order to be isolated and away from people enough to be comfortable flying it. I think I'd rather just hang out with them.

I understand where your fear comes from, and you are indeed correct. Electronics don't like extreme temperatures, but modern electronics are more tough than you might give them credit for, and can withstand some quite extreme environments (see: inside a re-flow soldering oven)

Fair enough, I've often thought that sometimes it detracts from the experience a little, for the reasons you stated and all the setup and consideration etc.. Same goes for taking photos, though to a lesser degree as that requires much less effort of course. Sometimes your memory is the best way to capture an experience!